Contents:
“Openers” by Robert Metz
“Can We Survive Democracy – Part 1: The Curse of Majority Rule” by Marc Emery and Robert Metz
“Can We Survive Democracy – Part 2: Freedom Betrayed – The Inevitable Course of Majority Rule” by Robert Metz and Marc Emery
“Can We Survive Democracy – Part 3” by Robert Metz
“No Referendums, Please!” by Marc Emery
“Representing the Individual: Elections in a Free Society” by William Frampton
“The Issue is Consent!” by Robert Metz
“Microcosm” by Marc Emery
“Only Rights Review the Wrongs of Democracy” by Greg Jones
“The World’s Second Democracy” by William Peterson
“For the Record” by Murray Hopper
“Light Humour”Continue reading »

On November 16, 1990, Freedom Party of Ontario held a dinner at what was then the Downtown Toronto Holiday. The dinner featured Professor William H. Peterson (Lundy Chair of Philosophy of Business, Campbell University, North Carolina), who gave a speech on “Canada’s Second Democracy” (the free market). Prior to his speech, Master of Ceremonies Bill Frampton gave Freedom Party’s toast to Freedom and introduced then-Freedom Party leader Robert Metz, who presented a number of Freedom 200 pins and gave a speech concerning the Ontario election of September 6, 1990 and the nature of voters. Metz then introduced Professor Peterson. After Professor Peterson’s speech, then-Freedom Party Action Director Marc Emery gave an unscheduled speech in which he condemned electoral participation and advocacy, and suggested that civil disobedience is the only effective way to achieve what he called “social change”. The speeches were followed by an informal question and answer session. Emery’s speech, and his answers at the question and answer session, marked the end of his association with the Freedom Party of Ontario, and his temporary discontinuance of involvement in electoral politics.

Contents:
Election ’90 Overview: So What’s Wrong With Socialism? Socialism 101: What To Expect Under Bob Rae’s Majority NDP Government – Commentary By Robert Metz; Freedom Party Fields Candidates in 10 Ontario Ridings; Over 100,000 pieces of Fp Election Literature Delivered to Ontarians; CBC Radio Interview With Freedom Party Leader Robert Metz; Freedom Party Appears on First Election Poll. Continue reading »

Two days before voting day in the Ontario election of 1990, Robert Metz – then leader of Freedom Party of Ontario – was the guest of the London, Ontario talk radio program Talkback (with host Anne Hutchison). With the exception of a call about land deals in London, most callers were interested in talking about health care. One caller recalled affordably buying health care insurance for $30 per month for a family of six in the years prior to 1969, when Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government banned private health care and instituted Ontario’s socialized health care monopoly. Another, defending Ontario’s socialist health care monopoly, called to say that each individual is his “brother’s keeper”. Another insinuated, falsely, that Metz and Freedom Party wanted a system akin to that in the United States. Openly opposing “univeral” health care, Metz’s reply was that the issues of health care and poverty are separate issues, and that Ontario residents should have a choice when it comes to paying for health care or helping the poor.

Most commercials have been removed from this recording, but election commercials by the Progressive Conservative Party, the Ontario Medical Association, a union, and the New Democratic Party have not been removed from the recording. Pay particular attention to the fact that, even in 1990, even Ontario’s doctors were saying that the Ontario health care system was leaving people suffering – even dying – in the health care queues and under-service that necessarily has constantly plagued the Ontario government’s rationed (i.e., socialist) health care monopoly since its inception in 1969.

NOTE: This recording was reconstructed from two cassette recordings of the same broadcast. One of the cassettes (captured as tape-2012-060.1990-09-04.talk-back.1990-election.metz-as-guest.same-episode-as-tape-2012-013-but-better-recording.mp3) included no commercials (they had been skipped during the recording process), but the other (captured as tape-2012.013.mp3) had a couple of election commercials that originally made onto a cassette tape. During most of tape-2012.013.mp3, music can be heard playing as if in the background, and the signal tails off dramatically toward the end. However, the political commercials from that recording have been added to the other recording to create this reconstructed recording for archival purposes.

In September of 1990, during Ontario’s general election, Rogers held a televised leaders debate that included all but the three leaders whose parties most recenty held seats in Ontario’s Legislature. Debaters: Robert Metz (then leader, Freedom Party of Ontario), Elizabeth Rowley (Communist Party), Jim Harris (Green Party), James Stock (Libertarian Party), and Louis di Rocco (Family Coalition Party). Hosted by David Schatzky. Questions from callers: How would each party get AIDs medicines to patients without patients having to pay the high cost of those medicines; What would each party do about funding to public schools?; What is the Family Coalition Party’s position on homosexuality?; What would the Green Party do with respect to garbage and energy lost with our waste?; Where do the candidates stand on the issue of Sunday shopping?; What is Freedom Party’s position on the right to recall (i.e., unseat) MPPs when they do not keep their problems?; Is the Libertarian party committed to more funding for police forces to “combat the rampant drug problem in this province”?; What kind of program does the Communist Party have?; What is each party’s position on multiculturalism?; What is each party’s position on rent controls?; What is each party’s position on immigration?; What is each party’s position on abortion?; What is each party’s position on Worker’s Compensation?Continue reading »

AUDIO – DESCRIPTION:
As the Ontario general election of September 6, 1990 approached CBC’s “Radio Noon” program interviewed then Freedom Party leader, Robert Metz.

NOTE: the quality of the recording, on the original cassette tape, was quite poor and hissy. An effort has been made to remove hiss and improve the audibility of the voices. If not a sonically-pleasing recording, the words spoken are nonetheless discernable, and the recording serves its essential purpose as an historical record.

On August 25, 1990, Freedom Party held a dinner at the Western Fairgrounds in London, Ontario in anticipation of the September 6, 1990 Ontario provincial general election. Freedom Party’s Jack Plant (who would become the party’s leader in 1994) MC’d the event. Some of Freedom Party’s 1990 election candidates gave speeches at the event, including: Jack Plant, Lloyd Walker, Barry Malcolm, Bill Frampton, Joe Byway, Ray Monteith, David Pengelly, and Chris Balabanian. Thereafter, Marc Emery (Freedom Party’s Action Director), Robert Metz (Freedom Party’s then-leader, and candidate), and Mary Lou Gutscher (Freedom Party) gave speeches in support of the party, its members, its candidates, and its vision.Continue reading »

On June 22, 1990, an Ontario High Court trial judge released his decision in the case of Peel (Regional Municipality) v. Great Atlantic & Pacific Co. of Canada Ltd.. The court declared Ontario’s Retail Business Holidays Act (which banned most retail sales on Sundays) unconstitutional because, it found, the Act was contrary to the religious freedom provisions of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The decision was overturned by the Ontario Court of Appeal on March 20, 1991 but, in the meantime, many retail stores began opening their doors on Sundays.

FM 96’s John Boles reported on what was expected to happen when London stores opened on Sunday, July 8, 1990. Ron Logan of the Patton’s Place furniture store (a long time opponent of Sunday Shopping) and Robert Metz (President of Freedom Party of Ontario, which long advocated choice) were interviewed.

“An Open Letter to David Peterson” by Ivor H. Nixon
“Microcosm” by Marc Emery
“First Initiative” by David Southen
“Reconciliation: Economics and the Environment – Part 1: The Tragedy of the Commons” by Walter Block
“Light Humor”Continue reading »